Body shaping and body part size enhancement products are commonplace in today's garment industry. Such products, generally marketed to female customers, serve to enhance the size and/or shape of a body part, or re-shape the body part. For example, enhancement products can be used to enhance the perceived size of one breast or both breasts, and the size or depth of a cleavage. Other garments are marketed to hide or re-shape so-called problem areas such as excess fat around the lower abdomen, the waist and the thighs; excess fat that would otherwise bulge outwardly at the top of, for example, trousers, or undergarments. This is perceived by many as rather unsightly and an indicator of poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle. Garments such as corsets or tightening bands are designed specifically to compress these areas to give the impression that the wearer has a small waist or is slimmer than the wearer truly is. Similarly, females who may be self-conscious about their size of their buttocks often turn to tightening clothes or underwear if their buttocks are larger than they would like.
In many cases, self-consciousness resulting from a poorly perceived body image can be detrimental to self-confidence, which can ultimately have a negative effect on the lifestyle of the female. Instead of, or in addition to exercising, a number of females may look for a quick and easy way to reduce or enhance the size and/or shape of their breasts, buttocks, waistline, thighs, hips or upper arms.
Cosmetic surgery can be used to either enhance breast or buttock size or shape using, for example, implants. This is particularly the case after a single or double mastectomy in which one or both diseased breasts are removed. However, any surgical procedure carries inherent risks and can, if not performed by a skilled cosmetic surgeon, leave the patient with unsightly scaring, and can lead to infection, which can be fatal in some cases. Also, in some instances breast implants can fail in situ causing life-threatening leakage of implant material into the body. Liposuction, using surgical techniques, can be used to remove excess adipose tissue from the lower abdomen, waist or buttocks. In addition to the dangers, cosmetic surgery is prohibitively expensive for many people.
In the female garment industry, lingerie is used to enhance the look of the female body. Typically, breast enhancement products include pads or pumps to enhance the cleavage by squeezing the breasts together and pushing them upwardly. Many women complain that this type of clothing rarely fits correctly causing discomfort to the wearer.
A number of patented designs exist that are used to enhance the size and/or shape of the body part, in particularly the breasts and cleavage of the user. Examples of such designs are given below:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,904,607 issued on May 18, 1999 to Jacob Abdali for “Cleavage Enhancement Brassiere”;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,515 issued on Nov. 10, 1998 to Khachik Shahbazian et al. for “Inflatable Breast Pads for a Brassiere”;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,037 issued on Jun. 20, 2000 to In-Han Lee et al. for “Brassiere”;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,760 issued on Oct. 16, 2001 to Fu Ming Dal for “Air Bag Type Brassiere”;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,906 issued on Mar. 12, 2002 to Shan Pu Liu for “Brassiere with Adjustable Cup Support Means”;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,795,875 issued on Sep. 28, 2004 to Otto J. Placik for “Breast Implant Sizing Apparatus and Method”.
Disadvantageously, none of the above systems, or devices permit bespoke enhancement or shaping of the body part. In particular, even though a number of the above-mentioned designs use pumping mechanisms to inflate and deflate a bladder-type implant, none of the pumping mechanisms are remotely controlled.
Thus, there is a need for an improved body part shaping and sizing/re-sizing garment.